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Thursday, October 9, 2008

OUCH These were Not Pretty

If one goes by the results of Wednesday's games involving Ranger prospects then it might be a good idea to cut Wednesday out of the hockey schedule.

Two Ranger prospects were in action but the results were losses for their teams. Neither game was close and the outcomes were not nice to watch.

Chris Doyle at least had his fourth goal of the year as his Prince Edward Island Rocket traveled to play the Saint John Sea Dogs on Wednesday as PEI lost 6-3.

Doyle had his 4th goal of the season late in the first period to give his Rocket a 1-1 first period tie but that was the last time the game was really close as the Sea Dogs scored 2 in the second period and then 3 more in the 3rd to turn the game into a rout.

The Rocket continue their early season struggles and it was a start like this last season that eventually cost then coach Yannick Jean his job. One does have to wonder if maybe Antoine Lafleur (who lost his job to current struggling starter Bobby Nadeau) was as bad as people made him out to be.

For the Sea Dogs, Traverse City invitee David Stich opened the game's scoring with his 3rd goal of the season. The reason we bring this up is that Stich's career high in goals is 4 and even though Stich is 20 that we are hoping the Rangers are still watching him.

5 is the theme it seems

Michael Del Zotto's 5 game scoring streak came to a crashing halt as his Oshawa Generals got gored by the Belleville Bulls 5-2. This was a case of the "haves vs the have nots" as the Bulls showed why they are ranked 6th in the latest CHL Mastercard Top Ten poll.

The Bulls who were last season's runner ups in the OHL final are sending an early message that they are going to be one of the teams to beat in the OHL. This was a very impressive win for the Bulls as they got a bit of everything in this game.

Del Zotto was shut off the scoreboard and the Bull's defense swarmed both Del Zotto and teammate John Tavares keeping them in check. The best player in this game was the Bull's goalie Mike Murphy who rightfully earned the game's first star.

Del Zotto was a -2 in this game but was more being on the ice than making the wrong play. In this case it was not that Del Zotto played bad but more about his Generals not having the depth of talent that Belleville does.

Belleville Bull (and Traverse City invitee) defenseman Nick Pageau did not score in this game.

The folks from Belleville offered Bull highlights (General Lowlights) from this game